


keeping it in the family

by hardlygolden



Category: Arrested Development
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-25
Updated: 2010-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-14 02:31:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/144372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hardlygolden/pseuds/hardlygolden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>George Michael and Maeby get married - eventually.</p>
            </blockquote>





	keeping it in the family

**Author's Note:**

  * For [togapika](https://archiveofourown.org/users/togapika/gifts).



> Yule treat - very rushed, but hope you enjoy!

The first time they kiss, it's to scare their parents (and it scares him only because it doesn't scare him as much as it should). They’re on a boat, and his stomach is turning with nervous anticipation, and its not the waves of the boat it’s the adrenaline that’s making him feel like he might be sick over the side any minute.

When he heard the warning signs of the Coast Guard, he had jumped back, terrified.

*

She's his cousin, and he knows that should matter. Except for how it doesn't.

*

He thought of her a lot, those months he was going out with Ann. It didn’t start off to make her jealous, although if he’s honest with himself, he liked the fact she might be. He genuinely liked Ann, though. It's just - she wasn't Maeby. Nobody was.

He’d always loved her, and wished she could love him too.

*

Those months they shared a room were a sweet sort of torture to him. He liked walking into the room after she got out, how the scent of her shampoo and perfume always lingered after she was gone.

*

They find out they're not actually related _after_ they find out they're actually married. In most families that would be weird, right?

In theirs, the absurdity pretty much passes unnoticed. His dad quietly arranges for a divorce, and George Michael signs the papers, because what else can he do. 

*

They're at different colleges, but they still see each other during holidays and at family gatherings (which happen more frequently these days, even though they’re not all living so close to one another).

His dad’s got a new girlfriend, now, and George Michael really likes her. His dad deserves to be happy, and he’s been missing his wife for so long it would be nice if he could find somebody else – something else.

Michael, of course, pulls George Michael aside very seriously and asks him if he is okay with that.

“It’s sweet of you to ask, Dad,” says George Michael. “But it’s your life, not mine. And Naomi seems lovely.”

It’s the truth – but not the entire truth.

The entire truth? George Michael wants somebody lovely too.

*

He goes on a few dates, at college. There’s a sorority girl called Kim, a cheerleader called Tina, an earnest girl from his Economics class called Rita who he goes on a few dates with.

He keeps it fairly casual. They’re nice girls, good to talk to, and good listeners.

When he ends it with Sara, a girl from his Poli-Sci class, she pats his hand gently. “That girl really did a number on you, huh,” she says.

“Which girl?” he asks.

“You know which girl,” she says.

The thing is – he does. And she’s right. Maeby’s still in his heart.

*

George Michael misses her. One day, they get to talking and turns out? She misses him too.

*

They talk a lot more after that. Then they spend a weekend together – it starts out just as a friend thing, but quickly turns into something more.

They try to hide it from their family at first – not because they’re afraid of how their family will react (the Bluth family would probably break out into an embarrassingly over-the-top display of Just How Okay They Are With This.) It's just - they want to keep this between the two of them. Something secret and shared, special.

*

Of course, nothing stays secret in the Bluth clan for very long.

“Were you scared to confess your love?” asks Tobias. “The love that dare not speak its name?”

George Michael  feels a little freaked out. “No,” he tries, but Gob is already pointing a finger and crowing – “were you _chicken?_ ”, and then the entire Bluth clan bursts out into a spontaneous version of the chicken dance.

"Why are _you_ dancing?" George Michael asks Maeby.

She shrugs. "It's fun," she says, and she grabs his hand and they start flapping their arms in a weirdly syncopated rhythm.

*

It's an odd assortment of people at their wedding. There are a few Hollywood types, who sit on Maeby's side of the room and whose pagers and cells go off at various points throughout the service. They shook George Michael’s hand and talked very fast, and smelt like fake tan.

For the service, Gob insists on Franklin being the ring bearer, and George Michael hadn’t really known how to say no, especially after Gob had explained how much it would mean to Franklin, and George Michael realised how much it would mean to Gob.

Franklin’s music career hasreally taken off, and Maeby seems to think having a celebrity at their wedding might be good from a PR point of view. Even if that celebrity was a puppet voiced by their uncle, who sang quasi-racist pop treatises and still smelt vaguely of chloroform.

“Besides,” Maeby said, lips quirking into a grin. “He’s part of the family, right?”

George Michael wasn’t entirely sure whether she was referring to Franklin or Gob himself, but he couldn’t argue with that logic, either way.

*

"Do you take this man," says the priest, and Maeby says “yes,” straight away.

A silence falls over the congregation.

The priest frowns at her, aggrieved. “Will you let me finish?”

Maeby blushes. “Sorry,” she says, and then, to George Michael: “Do you remember this many speeches last time we got married?”

The priest looks bewildered. “I don’t understand,” he asks. “Were you married before?”

“When we thought we were cousins,” Maeby supplies helpfully. “At a retirement home.”

The priest looks extremely freaked out.

George Michael, who was blessed with slightly more people skills, says politely to the priest: “Whenever you’re ready.”

The rest of the vows are a bit of a blur, and every now and then George Michael glances out at the crowd, seeing familiar faces. There’s his father, beaming proudly at him in the front row.

After the exchange of the rings, Gob also sits down in the front row (in a $3000 suit, he informed George Michael, slapping his knee to emphasise his point). Franklin is cradled on his lap, sporting a formal bow-tie for the occasion.

Maeby’s parents are in the front row, eyes fixed on their daughter. Tobias is crying, a little.

“I now present you with Mr and Mrs Bluth,” says the priest. The audience applaud, and George Michael feels so proud of his family, for that moment.

Maeby is so beautiful.

“You may now kiss the bride,” the priest intones.

*

Later, they will walk outside into the sunshine, where Buster will clap him on the shoulder with his hook and Gob will ask where the lighter fluid came from, and Anyong will hand out flyers for complimentary 2-for-1 frozen bananas and they will drive off in a stair-car fluttering a sign that says _Just Married._

But for now, George Michael kisses the bride. 

 

 


End file.
